The Brontës: Romantic Passion and Social Justice

De: Deborah Morse, The Great Courses

Narrado por: Deborah Morse

Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë created some of the greatest works of 19th-century English literature. How did these three young women, born into a humble parsonage on the isolated moors of Northern England, write such striking work? What influenced them? How did they get their stories out into the world? Why do their novels continue to grip readers to this day?

These and other questions are what you will explore in The Brontës: Romantic Passion and Social Justice. With Brontë scholar Deborah Denenholz Morse, you will look at the lives of the three Brontë sisters, their family life, experiences, beliefs, motivations - and their many tragedies. As you look closely at the literary and real-world influences that shaped them, you will get a deeper understanding of the astonishing talent and deep drive that pushed these three sisters to write novels like Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. These stories - often full of wind-swept drama and tinged with both personal and Romantic darkness - have gone on to influence the Western literary tradition far beyond what the Brontës themselves could have ever predicted.

The Brontës were deeply influenced by the world around them. Looking into their lives and work, you will get insight into the causes and events that shaped these phenomenal writers - not only their religious and Romantic influences, but also the social justice movements of their age, from women’s rights and anti-poverty campaigns to slavery abolition and early efforts to curb animal cruelty. You will see how their work transcended mere social commentary or embellished autobiography and left their mark on the social and literary trends that would emerge after them.

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Informative and a pleasure to listen to!

Professor Morse's voice has remarkable depth and resonance, and the stories she tells and retells--about the Bronte sisters and the fictions they created--are all the more compelling and memorable as a result. This is a perfect listen for anyone who wants to know more about the commitments and achievements of three remarkable writers who were passionately engaged in the life of their times.

WONDERFUL lecture series!

I have studied the Brontes before, but so much of this was wonderful, new thinking!

Informative and Inspiring

Professor Morse's lectures are informative, insightful, and beautifully delivered. She tells us of the Brönte sisters' upbringing and explains this and the many other influences on their writing. As Professor Morse inspires us to read (or re-read) the Brönte novels, we can only envy the education she gives her William and Mary students.

Powderpuff Bronte Sisters

Long live The Bronte sisters!
What an AMAZING window into their work.
Totally makes you want to reach for one of their novels.

Invigorating Discussion of Classic Social Works

This lecture series is a fascinating look into Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontes' published works and the ways they were influenced by and engaged with the social issues of their day. Whether that is women's rights, poverty, slavery abolition, or animal welfare, the Brontes were aware of these intense problems and used their creative expression to demonstrate the cruelties of injustice and horrors of domestic violence. Bronte scholar Deborah Morse mentions classic interpretations of "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights" while also supplementing my high school knowledge with hew insights.

I loved connecting the Brontes' intellectual upbringing with Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Sir Walter Scott. What a great representation of how important it is to allow young minds free rein of our libraries, rather than censoring books. I also loved hearing those connections between these authors and historical figures speaking publicly about some of these themes during their lifetimes, such as Frederick Douglass.

I am inspired to read Emily's early poetry as well as Anne Bronte's body of work. I am so glad I read this, especially for Women's History Month March 2023, and will be recommending to many.

Author’s Knowledge and Love of Her Subject

I just read Jane Eyre for the first time and loved it. Desiring more context on Charlotte Brontë and the time in which she wrote, I turned to this program. It was a revelation.
Prof. Morse’s vast knowledge of the Brontë sisters and the era in which they lived deepened my understanding of the novel. I felt as if I were in a seminar room with a scholar dedicated to enriching my appreciation of a classic work. Moreover, her exploration of the novel’s complexity has inspired me to read more of the Brontë sisters’ work. Morse reads with enthusiasm and expression in a voice that’s pleasing to the ear. Highly recommended!

She’s the best. These essays are the best.

For a very lucky generation or so of students at William and Mary, Professor Deborah Morse has acted as a guide and mentor in decoding British Victorian Literature. You can only imagine the excitement of this middle aged English major to discover that I can listen to these incredible, timely, interesting lectures on my morning walks. They take me straight back to Tucker Hall, where I received the gift of being Professor Morse’s student.

These lecture are relevant, fascinating, and engaging. I only wish that my boys were old enough to have Professor Morse so we could discuss them together.

So much more to the Brontes...

We enjoyed listening to these lectures very much. It is clear why Professor Morse has achieved renown as a scholar of Victorian literature and is loved by her students. If you already enjoy the novels by the Bronte sisters, this course will give you a deeper appreciation of their lives and times, and how those experiences and the wider social context emerge as recurring themes of the novels. If you are less familiar with the Brontes, or not familiar at all, the course may very well pique your interest and encourage you to check them out. We highly recommend the course to those interested in learning more about this rich vein of literature, from a master teacher who clearly loves the subject and wants to bring others to it.

Compelling and Illuminating

Beautifully written and evocatively read, Dr. Morse’s insightful and sensitive lectures illuminate the Brontë sisters’ lives, novels, and legacy. She identifies their childhood influences including moral grounding in Christianity, liberal education including exposure to literature then typically only available to men, multiple untimely losses within the immediate family, hardships resulting from maltreatment within the few occupational roles permitted to middle class women, and intimate sharing of works-in-progress by Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë. She then traces these influences as she discusses their novels, highlighting the Brontës’ treatment of romantic passion and three aspects of social justice: enslavement, oppression of women, and animal cruelty. She focuses on male domination and masculine privilege in both the domestic space and within British law and practice, drawing a parallel between enslavement and the oppression of women, but taking great care not to equate even gross gender inequality with the horrors of chattel slavery. I may listen to these brilliant lectures again after reading all of the books she discusses!

Wonderful and interesting insights into the Bronte sisters

This lecture is beautifully written and delivered by the author, Deborah Morse. The students at William and Mary must be delighted to have such a wonderful professor!